SSD or HDD? Certainly there will be a solid-state option, but a decent storage capacity at a sane price still mandates an HDD these days.

Sandy Bridge chippery - or the platform's successor - Thunderbolt portage, USB and an SD slot will complete the spec, we'd say. The current Airs lack Ethernet, and we can well imagine Apple leaving Gigabit off a 15in version too. One of the key features it's pushing with Mac OS X 10.7 Lion is AirDrop, a file swap system that only works over Wi-Fi.

Whether the machine will ship under the MacBook Air brand or that of the MacBook Pro line - or even if it'll ship at all - isn't known.